Upon winning a money judgment, a creditor has a couple of options for collection. The creditor can choose to collect in-house or turn collection over to another party. That other party could be the creditor’s attorney. Here is the million-dollar question: is the attorney the best choice for the job?
Perhaps you are the owner or manager of a small business that has recently won a money judgment. Now you’re wondering whether or not to leave the collection to your attorney. Only you can make that decision. However, carefully consider all the angles. Should you decide that your attorney isn’t the best choice, we hope you’ll consider Judgment Collectors. We specialize in collecting outstanding judgments in Utah and 10 other states.
Consider Your Attorney’s Specialty
One of the first things to consider is your attorney’s specialty. An attorney who specializes in debt collection may be the perfect choice to collect on your behalf. But if the attorney’s specialty lies elsewhere and helping you with a debt collection case was more of a side gig, there may be a lack of willingness to devote any more time to collection.
Speaking of time, your attorney likely has other cases to worry about. They have other clients to serve. Will they have sufficient time and resources to put into collecting on your behalf? Consider that judgment collection can take years even under the best of circumstances. Any constraints on your attorney’s time or resources could mean stretching out the collection for longer than you would like.
Consider Your Attorney’s Resources
Next, carefully consider your attorney’s resources. Limited resources could mean limited time and effort put into your case. For example, consider an attorney who operates their own practice and has no partners. Their staff consists of a secretary and one or two clerks. How much time and effort can they really devote to helping you get paid?
This is by no means a knock against attorneys. It’s simply to state that most attorneys do not specialize in debt collection. As a result, their collection resources are limited.
On the other hand, an agency like Judgment Collectors does nothing but collect judgments. All of our time and resources are put into that endeavor. We aren’t distracted by things unrelated to judgment collection. Each case gets our full attention.
Consider Your Attorney’s Fee Schedule
You might want to consider how your attorney gets paid. What is their fee schedule? Your attorney might charge you an hourly rate for all the time and effort put into collection. Even if their hourly rate is reasonable, their total fee could add up over many months or years of collection.
Collection agencies tend to work in one of two ways. First, some collection agencies buy judgments outright. They pay pennies on the dollar, then recoup what they pay through their collection efforts. We don’t do business that way. We prefer the second method: consignment.
Under the consignment model, we agree to take a case with the understanding that we only get paid if we successfully collect. Our fees are based on the amount collected. Therefore, it’s in our best interests – and yours, too – to do everything we can to collect the maximum amount.
Your Choice to Make
Whether or not you retain your attorney to collect a newly obtained judgment is up to you. If your attorney is your best choice, by all means consider giving him the job. But if not, at least consider learning more about what Judgment Collectors can do. We are a better choice for so many judgment creditors.